New to photography, need advice on two pics!

Phazan · Dec 26, 2006

Hi, I'm new to photography, I am 16, and yesterday, I opened up my awesome brand new Canon S3 IS!! I love it so far. I have two pictures that I like a lot, and I was wondering if any of you could give me advice on them. The first picture was taken at Disney Land with my previous camera (Point-and-Shoot Kodak C330) and the second picture was taken yesterday with my new S3. Any advice would be appreciated!

Point and shoot.

I don't really need a ton of advice on this one, I just wanted to you guys to see it, it's one of my favorite pictures I have taken.

And my recent picture taken with my S3. (Any advice on this, would be awesome!)

Anyone has permission to edit these...

The_Traveler · Dec 26, 2006

You clearly have an interest and an eye for composition. The second picture is well focussed, good DOF and well composed.
Do you have access to any post-processsing software like Photoshop. Photoshop elements, PaintShop Pro or any of the others?

Phazan · Dec 26, 2006

^Yes, I have photoshop, but I can only do basic things on it.
Just a question, what do you mean by "composition"? Does that mean I set the picture up well? Sorry, I didn't know what you meant by that.
Also, thanks for the reply!

The_Traveler · Dec 26, 2006

First, thanks for letting me post this; the image is a great start for bunch of reasons. You picked an interesting group of red things against a good OOF background. The focus is great and the DOF is good.

You have placed the objects of interest in the field very well (composition). The size is sort of non-standard for a print - altho it fits neatly on a screen - and if you planned to print this I would crop it to 4h x 5w, taking most of it off the right margin.

The red things are a little dull; altho there is some contrast between the top and the bottom, I would suggest lightening them overall and then making the red things a little more contrasty to show the light coming sown from the sky.
I didn't want to mess with the background (nicely OOF) when I did the lightening, so I masked out the background and just did the adjustments to the red things.

I also burnt in the upper left corner to remove that bright distracting spot.

The_Traveler · Dec 26, 2006

BTW, really good start.
Keep it up.
Post more pictures.

Phazan · Dec 26, 2006

Thanks so much for helping me! That new picture you posted looks a lot nicer. I might be going to Yosemite in the next week or so, so I will post a bunch of new pictures when I get back. It just depends on the weather.

The_Traveler · Dec 26, 2006

Don't worry about weather.
Trust the camera.
Think about composing the image.
Read the histogram section in the manual and use the histogram for guidance in exposure.
Take lots of pictures; they are your best guide for the learning experience.
Post lots of pictures but don't put more than a couple in each thread so that people can make serious critique.

Good luck.

Phazan · Dec 27, 2006

^I meant I need the weather to be clear, or else we (Me and my dad) wont be able to get to Yosemite without using chains, which will take up the whole day.
And I really like the histogram feature. So far I have the P, TV, AV, and the M mode down. I am still reading the camera manuel and I am figuring out new things everyday. Again, thanks for helping me!
Also, I was wondering if it could/would be bad for the camera to use cheap alkaline batteries. I'm talking about no name brands. I have a ton in my room. My dad bought me 8 AA rechargable Ni-Mh batteries, but my Kodak charger is only charging them for a few minutes, then calling them good! I need to figure out a way to keep my camera powered for a whole day, and not 5 minutes.